A new and improved road bridge on The Weir Road, Barnsley in Newcastle will replace the previous bridge over Cockle Creek, which was built in 1925 and recently closed due to safety concerns. The new dual-lane bridge with three metres of pathway for pedestrians and cyclists, jointly funded by the Australian Government and Lake Macquarie City Newcastle (LMCN), was opened in mid-2022.

BG&E undertook structural design of the 38-metre-long, 15-metre-wide single span composite steel girder bridge for LMCN. Abutments were six metres high, with cantilevered reinforced concrete walls supported on piles bored to rock. While the bridge deck consisted of weathering steel girders with a composite reinforced concrete deck. Pot bearings were utilised to accommodate the movement of the bridge.

The project entailed complex geotechnical issues including a buried concrete intake channel from a decommissioned power station and a coal seam underneath the sandstone bedrock. However, BG&E accelerated the design program to meet a tight tender submission deadline due to funding restrictions.

The new Weir Road Bridge will provide safe and convenient access for residents and visitors, whether travelling by car, bike or on foot. The new bridge also promises to be more reliable, designed to withstand flooding from Cockle Bay, which caused frequent closure of the previous bridge.